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IBC 2019 made three things clear: the field of vendors is narrowing; the breadth of solutions offered across this field is dwindling; the consequent search for - and essentiality of - value creation is peaking.

This year’s MWC Barcelona event was an important gathering place for the mobile industry, playing host to an interesting dialogue about the future of mobile connectivity. Of course, 5G was the focus of MWC, but a few other topics managed to be part of the overall mobile discussion—WiFi in particular managed to shine through the deluge of 5G announcements. Service providers like AT&T, manufacturer Samsung, network vendors Cisco and Nokia, and Internet giants Facebook and Google all made notable WiFi announcements highlighting not only their own WiFi activity but continuity of the larger WiFi ecosystem. This research note provides a summary of some of the announcements and discussions we had related to WiFi and how it relates to network and service evolution in the 5G era. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

Amazon and eero announced on February 11th, 2019, that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire eero. eero’s home mesh WiFi systems set up in minutes and blanket every room of a customer’s home in high-performing, reliable WiFi.

With the dawn of 5G networks right around the corner, 2019 promises to be an exciting year full of announcements, deployments, and official launches. But how will WiFi coexist alongside 5G? More importantly, how will the carrier WiFi market pan out in 2019 once 5G is introduced? Clients, please log in to view the full content.

Skyworth Group has concluded the acquisition of Allied Electronics Corporation Limited (Altron)’s set-top box manufacturing business (Altech UEC South Africa). Altron announced in Q3 2018 that it was close to selling off the business, with the Competition Commission giving the regulatory nod of approval in Q1 2019.

US telecommunications equipment maker CommScope will acquire Arris, in a $7.4B deal valued at $5.69 billion, with the difference comprised of CommScope’s assumption of Arris’s debt. As part of the deal, the Carlyle Group will make a $1M equity investment in CommScope for an approximate 16% stake in the new company.
CommScope’s CEO Eddie Edwards has claimed the two companies’ product lines are complementary, and that the combined company will “enable end-to-end wired and wireless communications infrastructure solutions that neither company could otherwise achieve on its own.”
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

Verizon recently announced the rollout of its 5G wireless home broadband service in the US, 5G Home, with orders opening September 13th, 2018 and launch beginning October 1st in Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.
The company is touting typical speeds of approximately 300 Mbps, peaking at 1 Gigabit, with no data caps. The service is priced at $50/month for existing Verizon subscribers, and $70/month for non-subscribers, and comes with three months of YouTube TV free. Subscribers also receive their choice of a free Google Chromecast Ultra or Apple TV 4K.

Nagra has divested its SmarDTV business. The firm announced during the first quarter of 2018 that it was looking for a buyer; in Neotion – the French conditional access vendor – Nagra has found one. Neotion will acquire SmarDTV’s conditional access module (CAM) and pay TV set-top box assets, while Nagra will retain SmarDTV’s plants in the UK and France, as well as SmarDTV’s entire patent portfolio. The USD 20m transaction hinges upon Nagra’s licensing the SmarDTV patents to Neotion, and to Neotion’s newly created SmarDTV Global affiliate.

IBC 2017 was ostensibly dominated by a host of Android TV, voice control, analytics, and cloud DVR-related announcements. In actuality, virtually every announcement trumpeted at the show can be traced to a single, inexorable market reality. The Web Giants have indelibly made their mark on the video technology industry.

The wearable technology and app market is dramatically changing. This service contains data and analysis on the market with insights from analysts throughout IHS Markit. The following data presents the share of the overall top 100 ranked free, grossing, and paid apps that featured Apple Watch extension in May 2017, with previous 2016 and 2015 year comparisons.

Samsung grew revenue and profit in Q3 2015 on the back of improving mid and low end smartphone shipments. M Business unit which includes smartphone business posted 26.61 trillion Korean won (KRW) revenue in Q3'15. This is up 8% YoY and 2% QoQ. Operating profit was 2.4 trillion KRW, which reflects 9% of margin rate.

IHS analysis of the top performing US iPhone apps shows that Health & Fitness services have been quickest to market with Apple Watch apps. Overall an average of one in five of the top performing free, paid, and grossing iPhone apps are Apple Watch compatible.